Medical devices are commonly used today to treat patients suffering from various ailments. Implantable medical devices can be used to treat conditions such as pain, incontinence, movement disorders, such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease, and sleep apnea. Additionally, use of medical devices appears promising to treat a variety of physiological, psychological, and emotional conditions.
One type of medical device is an Implantable Pulse Generator (IPG). An IPG may be implanted within a patient's body. The IPG may then generate and deliver electrical stimulation signals to influence selected neural tissue to treat a particular ailment. The stimulation sites may include the spinal cord, brain, body muscles, peripheral nerves, or other sites selected by a physician. For example, in the case of pain, electrical impulses may be directed to particular nerves associated with specific sites where the patient is feeling pain. Neurostimulation can give patients effective pain relief and can reduce or eliminate the need for repeat surgeries and pain medications.
An IPG system may include an implantable pulse generator, a programming device, and at least one electrical lead. The IPG may be powered by an internal source such as a rechargeable or non-rechargeable battery or by an external source such as a radio frequency transmitter. The IPG generates and sends precise, electrical pulses to the stimulation area to provide the desired treatment therapy.
The programming device may be an external device that allows a physician and/or patient to communicate with the IPG. A physician may create and store stimulation therapy programs to be administered to the patient by the IPG. The programming device may communicate bi-directionally with the IPG, via RF telemetry signals.
Programming of IPGs has traditionally been done from the hardware level up. For instance, setting amplitudes for particular electrodes that would result in some type of stimulation pattern. Conventional programming-device user interfaces typically do not display a stimulation pattern generated by particular electrode settings. Physicians may not be comfortable thinking about stimulation in terms of electrodes programmed as cathodes and anodes. Further, when there are more than one or two cathode/anode pairs, it becomes relatively difficult to think about how the various electromagnetic fields may interact. There are transverse elements where dipoles affect other dipoles, and the like.
Further, a physician using a conventional user interface to try to optimize therapy settings typically a programming device in one hand and an x-ray or fluoroscopy of the intended stimulation area in the other hand. The x-ray or fluoroscopy shows where the leads are relative to the intended stimulation site, such as the patient's spine. A physician typically knows where nerves come out of a patient's spine and lead to particular areas of the patient's body. So, to treat pain, for instance, the physician is typically trying to arrange the electrodes near those locations of the spine. Accordingly, an interface that shows where leads are placed within the patient's body and that presents a view of stimulation patterns generated by various electrodes settings would be desirable.